Houston.(North America)(Madama Butterfly)(Opera Review)

Patricia Racette delivered a stunning star performance in Houston Grand Opera's Madama Butterfly, the opening production of HGO'S fiftieth-anniversary season (seen October 22). With power, nuance and a wonderful flair for vocal color, Racette offered a riveting portrait of Puccini's heroine, in her professional role debut as Cio-Cio-San. Racette's Butterfly visibly matured throughout the action--more so than in most productions--and in Act II, Cio-Cio-San took on a confidence and a naturalism in gesture and movement that showed her conversion to Western ways, an empowering conception of the character that the soprano made entirely believable. Racette was also superb vocally, beginning "Un bel di" with a breathtaking piano in the high register, proceeding through the arias middle section with clearly articulated yet urgent questions ("Chi sara? che dira?") and finishing with stentorian certainty on a glorious high B-flat. In her warm interactions with her son, and in the harrowing suicide scene, Racette showed why she is considered one of the best singing actresses around.

The other roles were all strongly cast. British tenor Paul Charles Clarke was in fine form as Pinkerton, imbuing "Dovunque al mondo" and "Addio, fiorito asil" with affecting lyricism. Baritone Peter Coleman-Wright, a ...